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The siege of Malbork took place between September 28, 1457 and August 5, 1460, during the Thirteen Years' War. The Teutonic Knights tried to regain the fortress of Malbork, which had been the capital of their state, but was captured by the Kingdom of Poland in June 1457. The Knights, commanded by Bernard Szumborski, failed to do so, and Malbork remained in Polish hands, becoming the seat of Malbork Voivodeship.
In the spring of 1457, the garrison of Marienburg, composed of mercenaries (mostly from Bohemia), hired by the Teutonic Knights, began negotiations with Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon. The mercenaries, who had not been paid by the Knights, agreed to sell three fortresses - Marienburg, Dirschau and Eylau. On June 7, 1457, Polish King entered Marienburg, and the capital of the State of the Teutonic Order was moved to Königsberg. The mercenaries, commanded by Olrich Cervonka, received 190 000 Hungarian florins.
In August 1457, the Knights began an offensive, with the purpose of regaining their castles. In the Battle of Sepolno, Polish pospolite ruszenie was defeated, and main Teutonic forces, commanded by Moravian mercenary, Bernard Szumborski, headed towards Marienburg. On September 28, residents of the town handed it back to the Knights, but the Marienburg Castle remained in Polish hands, defended by Czech mercenary Olrich Cervonka, who had switched sides.
In October 1457, the Knights and their mercenaries ransacked the areas held by Poles, capturing Chełmno and Starogard. After this raid, forces sent from Greater Poland appeared in the area of Marienburg, cutting all communications links between scattered Teutonic forces. Nevertheless, the siege of Marienburg continued through the winter, and following royal order, Olrich Cervonka was replaced by Scibor z Ponieca.
In the spring of 1458, Polish Sejm agreed to send levee en masse to Marienburg. Polish army was concentrated in June in Kujawy, reaching the castle on August 10. Numerous delays and lack of artillery prevented the Poles from breaking the siege, while the Knights on August 16 captured Neuenburg. In September the units of pospolite ruszenie began to head back to Poland, and in October, a 9-month truce was signed.
The truce ended in July 1459, and the Knights immediately resumed military activity. Marienburg was defended by Jan Koscielecki and Prandota Lubieszowski, while Polish King was unable to gather an army, due to never-ending arguments with the magnates. In November a 2-month truce was signed, and both sides began negotiations, in cooperation with foreign rulers.
The negotiations strengthened the position of the Knights, as they were supported by Bohemian ruler George of Podebrady, who feared that Casimir IV Jagiellon would try to grab his throne. Under the circumstances, Poles decided to act, and on March 21, 1460, their army approached the city of Marienburg, which, unlike the castle, was in Teutonic hands. The city was cut off, traffic on the Nogat river was blocked, and on August 5, 1460, the city surrendered. The mayor of Marienburg was sentenced to death for treason.
The Battle of Świecino also called the Battle of Żarnowiec or in German Die Schlacht bei Schwetz, took place on September 17, 1462 during the Thirteen Years' War. The Polish forces, commanded by Piotr Dunin and consisting of some 2,000 mercenaries and Poles, decisively defeated the 2,700-man army of the Teutonic Knights, commanded by Fritz Raweneck and Commander of the Order Kaspar Nostitz (Nostyc). Auxiliary forces sent by Duke Eric II of Pomerania, temporary ally of the Teutonic Knights, did not enter the battle.
Malbork is a town in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. It is the seat of Malbork County and has a population of 37,898 people as of 2021. The town is located on the Nogat river, in the historical region of Pomerelia.
Ulrich von Jungingen was the 26th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1407 to 1410. His policy of confrontation with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland would spark the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War and lead to disaster for his Order, and his own death, at the Battle of Grunwald.
The Malbork Voivodeship, after Partitions of Poland also referred to as the Malbork Land, was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Kingdom of Poland from 1454/1466 until the Partitions of Poland in 1772–1795. Its capital was at Malbork.
The (First) Peace of Thorn was a peace treaty formally ending the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War between allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania on one side, and the Teutonic Knights on the other. It was signed on 1 February 1411 in Thorn (Toruń), one of the southernmost cities of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. In historiography, the treaty is often portrayed as a diplomatic failure of Poland–Lithuania as they failed to capitalize on the decisive defeat of the Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in June 1410. The Knights returned Dobrzyń Land which they captured from Poland during the war and made only temporary territorial concessions in Samogitia, which returned to Lithuania only for the lifetimes of Polish King Władysław Jagiełło and Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas. The Peace of Thorn was not stable. It took two other brief wars, the Hunger War in 1414 and Gollub War in 1422, to sign the Treaty of Melno that solved the territorial disputes. However, large war reparations were a significant financial burden on the Knights, causing internal unrest and economic decline. The Teutonic Knights never recovered their former might.
The Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War, also known as the Great War, occurred between 1409 and 1411 between the Teutonic Knights and the allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Inspired by the local Samogitian uprising, the war began with a Teutonic invasion of Poland in August 1409. As neither side was ready for a full-scale war, Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia brokered a nine-month truce.
The siege of Marienburg was an unsuccessful two-month siege of the castle in Marienburg (Malbork), the capital of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. The joint Polish and Lithuanian forces, under command of King Władysław II Jagiełło and Grand Duke Vytautas, besieged the castle between 26 July and 19 September 1410 in a bid for complete conquest of Prussia after the great victory in the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg). However, the castle withstood the siege and the Knights conceded only to minor territorial losses in the Peace of Thorn (1411). Marienburg defender Heinrich von Plauen is credited as the savior of the Knights from complete annihilation.
Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg was the 28th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1414 to 1422.
Pasłęk is a historic town in northern Poland, within Elbląg County in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. In 2017, the town had 12,298 registered inhabitants.
The Golub War was a two-month war of the Teutonic Knights against the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1422. It ended with the signing the Treaty of Melno, which resolved territorial disputes between the Knights and Lithuania over Samogitia that had dragged on since 1398.
The Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, commonly known as Malbork Castle, is a 13th-century castle complex located in the town of Malbork, Poland. It is the largest castle in the world measured by land area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Polish–Teutonic War of 1519–1521 was fought between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Knights, ending with the Compromise of Thorn in April 1521. Four years later, under the Treaty of Kraków, part of the Catholic Monastic State of the Teutonic Order became secularized as the Duchy of Prussia. The reigning Grand Master Albert of Hohenzollern-Brandenburg-Ansbach became the first Duke of Prussia by paying the Prussian Homage as vassal to his uncle, Polish king Sigismund I the Old.
Polish–Teutonic Wars refer to a series of conflicts that took place between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order, a medieval German military order with roots in the Baltic region. These wars occurred primarily during the 14th and 15th centuries and were characterized by territorial disputes, political maneuvering, and religious differences.
The Thirteen Years' War, also called the War of the Cities, was a conflict fought in 1454–1466 between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order.
Bernard Szumborski was a Moravian knight and a mercenary. Szumborski was hired by the Teutonic Knights during the Battle of Chojnice, and was sent with 15,000 men to relieve the besieged city of Chojnice. King Casimir IV of Poland sent cavalry attacks to the rear of the Teutonic lines and Szumborski was captured. However, Teutonic knights rallied up and caused panic. Szumborski managed to escape and organized the pursuit of the fleeing Polish army. On October 24, 1457, together with 2000 mercenaries, Szumborski captured Chełmno (Kulm), and killed its mayor, Michal Segemund, claiming that he was a traitor. His forces captured other towns of Pomerelia and Chełmno Land, and on March 21, 1458, Szumborski with his army approached Toruń (Thorn), burning its suburbs, but failing to capture the heavily fortified city. On September 19, 1460, Szumborski captured the town of Golub-Dobrzyń, but Polish garrison of its castle, commanded by Andrzej Puszkarz, managed to hold it. In August 1466, Szymborski, as envoy of the Teutonic Knights, was sent to Bydgoszcz, to negotiate with King Casimir IV and his envoys, Jan Długosz and Jan Sapienski. The negotiations ended on October 19, 1466, when the Second Peace of Thorn was signed. Szymborski, regarded as a very cruel man, died on January 7, 1470. As Jan Długosz recorded, he was poisoned by a female resident of Chełmno.
Jakub Kobylański was a Polish knight, and a court marshal to the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas (Witold) between 1425 and 1430. He also served as the castellan of Biecz from 1444, and of Gniezno from 1453 until his death. He was also the Royal Krajczy to King of Poland Casimir IV Jagiellon, beginning in 1450.
The Polish–Turkish War of 1485–1503 was a prolonged conflict, rather a series of conflicts, between the Kingdom of Poland and the Ottoman Empire. The conflict formally lasted eighteen years, but during this time hostilities were ceased on several occasions due to temporary treaties being signed between the warring parties.
Siege of Marienburg occurred during the Thirteen Years' War between the Teutonic Knights and the Kingdom of Poland. Marienburg was the capital of the state of the Teutonic Order, in particular, the residence of the Grand Master of the order. An alliance of Prussians and Poles besieged the city beginning 27 February 1454 with mercenaries from Danzig, and the necessary artillery.
Malbork treaty was signed on 9 October 1454, in the fortress of Marienburg (Malbork). It was between the authorities of the Teutonic Order, represented by the Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen, and the commanders (rittmasters) of the mercenary troops fighting on behalf of the Order in the Thirteen Years' War, represented by Bernard von Zinnenberg. In exchange for obtaining a guarantee with the right to sell the most important Prussian strongholds still under the Order's control for unpaid military compensation, the mercenaries agreed to continue military operations on behalf of the Order until 19 February 1455, despite not receiving the agreed payment. This enabled the Teutonic Order to repel the Polish offensive on Malbork in January 1455, recapture Königsberg (Kaliningrad) along with Lower Prussia and Samland from the Prussian Confederation, and regain control of several fortresses from them.
The Battle for Kneiphof was the culmination of the struggle for control over the port district of Kaliningrad, Kneiphof, lasting from April 13 to July 14, 1455, during the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466), ending with a decisive victory for the Teutonic Order.